DAIRY COWS AND SHEEP

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

DAIRY COWS AND SHEEP

EFFECT OF WOOL PRICES. DAIRYMEN FEEL BENEFIT. Dairyfarmers cannot help but regard with a certain amount of envy the phenomenal rise in the price of wool, compared with which butter and cheese values cut a very poor figure remarks the Dairyman. But, though they may not gain directly, the increased wool prices that are being realised throughout the world to-day will prove to be of considerable indirect benefit to the dairy industry. Sheepfarmers and graziers generally who suffered so severely during the last few years were driven into dairying by sheer desperation. This happened not only in New Zealand but in every agricultural country and a large part of the world’s surplus of dairy produce has been due to this change-over. . Though, in most instances, the change-over from sheep to dairying brought little profit to the owner, it nevertheless added to the surplus and helped to ruin prices for the regular producer. As far as New Zealand is concerned, the particulars of agricultural and pastoral holdings officially compiled and recently published by the Census and Statistics Office, Wellington, give clear indication of this change-over. While the number of dairy farms in 1932-33 show an increase of 150 over the previous year, sheep and cattle grazing runs show a decrease of 1,130. Even these figures do not tell the whole story as a large number of cows have been milked on sheepfarms without such farms losing their official status and actually becoming dairyfarms. This seems to ba indicated by the decrease in holdings designated as “mixed dairying and grazing farms” and "general mixed farms” the main function of which became, no doubt, dairying. If for no other reason, therefore, the great improvement hi the outlook of sheepfarming should be welcomed by members of the dairy industry as the reaction will make itself felt within a few months. It is indeed the only bright spot on the economic horizon for, by reducing the world’s supply of dairy produce, it will increase prices more effectively than tariffs, quotas or any other measure of protection or restriction. What is more, the dairyfarmer should follow the sheepfarmer’s example and keep a small number of sheep just as the sheepmen milked a few cows. We made this suggestion before wool soared to such unexpected heights and, needless to say, the reasons given for such a proposal some months ago are much stronger to-day. Wool prices may not remain exactly at the present level, but there is every indication that sheepfarming will be the most profitable agricultural pursuit for several years to come. In any case there will be a marked and rapid change over from dairy cows to sheep all the world over, from which dairy farmers will benefit before very long. k